Indiana Court of Appeals

By a 2-1 vote, the Indiana Court of Appeals reversed the denial of an Indianapolis man’s motion to suppress a handgun
found on him after officers questioned him in a lobby of a movie theater. The majority ruled the officers had no reasonable
suspicion to justify the investigatory stop.

A police officer had reasonable suspicion to stop and search a teen at an Indianapolis mall on Black Friday last year whom
was believed to be involved in a shouting match with another group of people in a department store, the Indiana Court of Appeals
affirmed.

A Clark County man’s behavior qualified as a credible threat of violence with respect to three employees of the assisted
living facility where his mother lived, so the trial court correctly issued workplace violence restraining orders on their
behalf, the Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed.

A longtime criminal who was convicted of violating his parole on an attempted robbery sentence was deprived a hearing on a
corrected record and therefore is entitled to post-conviction relief, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.

A man’s convictions of battery and disorderly conduct will stand, but the Indiana Court of Appeals cautioned trial courts
that including law enforcement affirmations in jury instructions should not, calling the practice “undesirable and completely
avoidable.”

The majority of a Court of Appeals panel reversed the conviction of a young man who claimed he was wrongly denied an opportunity
to present Indiana’s “Romeo and Juliet” law as an affirmative defense to a charge of sexual misconduct with
a minor.

The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and the city’s Office of Corporation Counsel pursued a ‘wholly
meritless, possibly frivolous argument’ in a public-records case, the Court of Appeals ruled Monday. The city will pay
the legal fees of a man who sued to obtain records after he was denied.

An Indianapolis man who had lived with his father with the consent of the senior apartment complex where he resided should
not have been convicted of trespass after he was ordered to leave, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled in overturning a bench
trial verdict.

An ex-husband’s actions that prompted a woman to get a protective order against him did not constitute stalking or threatening
behavior sufficient to warrant the court order, the majority of an Indiana Court of Appeals panel ruled Friday. A dissenting
judge warned the holding “insulates perpetrators of domestic violence” who threaten friends or associates of former
partners.

A man who was drummed out of the Islamic Society of Michiana’s board of directors filed a combative, confusing brief
demonstrating bad faith when he appealed a trial court’s dismissal of his pro se suit seeking $5.2 million in damages.
Now he’s on the hook for damages.

A woman who accepted a man’s offer to live in his home and who soon became his lover should not have been convicted
of trespass for refusing to leave when he tried to kick her out, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Friday.

Dealing with the question for the first time in a negligence case involving a fired truck driver, the Indiana Court of Appeals
decided that a post-incident investigation is not an inadmissible subsequent remedial measure.

The Indiana Court of Appeals in a child in need of services case questioned why the Department of Child Services was able
to not comply with multiple court orders and face no consequences from the juvenile court.

Despite a police officer’s failure to strictly follow relevant procedures for completing a written inventory of items
found in an impounded car, the Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed that the warrantless search of the car was not unreasonable.

A registered nurse at a Wayne County clinic that treated those with addictions will face criminal charges for her role in
handing out prescriptions prepared outside the usual course of professional medical practice. The Indiana Court of Appeals
reversed the dismissal of those charges that was based on the fact she was not a doctor.

Whether someone used another person’s identity for a lawful purpose is an affirmative defense to the crime of identity
deception and not a material element of the crime, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled in a first impression matter.

The Indiana Court of Appeals on Monday affirmed a trial court’s conclusion that a lesbian couple who entered into a
registered domestic partnership in California should be treated like married spouses. As such, the judges affirmed the award
of joint legal custody and parenting time to the non-biological parent after the couple broke up.

Hearing arguments about a case that resulted in what may be among the largest awards for loss of consortium, the Indiana Court
of Appeals repeatedly questioned what amount of damages is too much and when a jury’s decision should be overturned.

Two of three judges on an Indiana Court of Appeals panel urged lawmakers to revisit a requirement that trial courts advise
convicts of their earliest and latest possible release dates, but a third judge dismissed the majority’s position that
the requirement “imposes an impracticable burden on our trial courts.

An inmate’s pro se legal briefs arguing for a modification of his 70-year drug sentence impressed the Indiana Court
of Appeals, who granted him another chance to make his case that he deserves leniency as a model prisoner who made the best
of his time behind bars.

A man convicted of killing a female co-worker whose skeletal remains were found in a Johnson County marsh was denied an opportunity
to use the court record to plead his counsel was ineffective as he sought post-conviction relief, the Indiana Court of Appeals
ruled Friday.

A man failed to persuade the Indiana Court of Appeals that revocation of his probation on a drug charge was barred by the
doctrine of res judicata because his placement in community corrections had already been revoked.